


Advice

by chescaplier



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Obvious Plot Twist, Relationship Advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-23 12:42:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7463733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chescaplier/pseuds/chescaplier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Mark turns to Jack for relationship advice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Advice

**Author's Note:**

> whoops so you know how I was going to write Visions and never did well here's the shitty one-shot you get instead I'm so sorry D:
> 
> I hope you enjoy it anyway!! I had a lot of fun writing this and torturing my friends who kept bugging me to finish it :D

It was time.

Mark cracked his knuckles and floofed his hair, growling menacingly, "You're going down. Don't think I'm not going to kick your ass."

"Just you wait until I kick yours first," his opponent retorted in an equally threatening manner.

Mark gritted his teeth, pawing his feet on the ground. "You won't even know what hit you."

"Come at me, scrublord," his adversary shot back.

Before Mark had a chance to respond, the arena opened up, signaling the beginning of the match. It was now or never. Mark carefully scanned his surroundings before making his first shot with infinite skill.

"FUCK!!"

The ball gracefully plonked into the water.

Mark heavily exhaled in annoyance as giggles began to reverberate through his headset. "You know," Jack commented, "you sure do talk out of yer ass a lot for someone who's fuckin' horrible at this game."

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT I GOT THE FUCKING CONE!!" Mark screamed in return, though he couldn't help but giggle himself.

As Mark and Jack progressed further through Golf with Your Friends, the Friday sun steadily sank lower and lower over the blazing horizon. By the time they finished their matches, daylight was long gone and neither of them could stifle their yawns any longer.

"That was a great game," Mark commented after a particularly large yawn.

"Funny you said that, seeing as I definitely beat yer ass," Jack retorted with a smile in his voice.

"Shut up. I refuse to hold a grudge. Next Friday, I will definitely beat you."

"Whatever you say, man." Jack giggled. "So what's going on in Markimoo-land this week?"

"Oh, not a whole lot...homework, tests, family drama, just the norm."

"Surely that's not all," Jack responded. Mark held his breath. "Did you talk to Marianne?"

 _Shit._ Mark exhaled. "Yeah, um, after you gave me her number, we talked for a little bit, but nothing ever went anywhere. I don't think she's the one."

"Aw, that sucks man. I thought she would be good for you," Jack replied with a touch of legitimate sorrow in his voice.

"It's alright. I...I think I've found someone else though," Mark stuttered. _Fuck._ He would've rather ripped his testicles off than have this conversation at the moment.

To Mark's annoyance, Jack dramatically _ooh_ ed and responded with "Tell me tell me tell me!! What's her name? What's she like?"

Mark scratched his neck. "I'm not going to say her name." When Jack groaned in disappointment, Mark added, "She's really cool though. She's got...um...lots of energy, a good sense of humor...um, just all-around really fun to hang out with. Unfortunately, we don't get to see each other a whole lot because we're both really busy with, uh, school and stuff.

"I...I like her a lot. We're pretty good friends, and I think I'm ready to, uh, step it up a notch."

Mark couldn't help but cringe a little as Jack practically squealed. "Dude, why didn't you tell me about this sooner?!" Jack exclaimed.

"I don't know...I guess it just never came up."

"Oh my God. She better be the fuckin' one, 'cuz no one's gonna hurt my baby. I'll fuckin' rip her to shreds if she even lays a finger on yer poor fragile heart."

Mark giggled, blushing a little at Jack's valiant protection of him. "Jack, please don't threaten to ribbon my potential girlfriend to her face."

"Yeah, I suppose that's not too professional," Jack laughed.

Mark chuckled and rubbed his neck. "Anyway, uh, I brought this to your attention because...I need help."

"With asking her out?"

"Yeah, I don't-"

"You want me to ask your girlfriend out with you?" Jack snickered.

"No, shut up, let me finish!" Mark laughed. "I don't know how to do it."

"You fuckin' open yer mouth and say, 'Would you like to have the eternal honor of being the girlfriend of Mark Fischbach, the sexiest man alive?' and see how she responds!"

"Shut the fuck up," Mark laughed, a blush creeping up his neck. "I'm just afraid I'm going to fuck it up. You know how bad my speech impediment gets when I'm nervous, I'll look like a fool."

"Listen, only a fuckin' idiot would think that yer speech impediment makes you a fool. Just drop subtle physical hints if you're afraid of talking."

"How?"

"I don't know, man, let her catch you staring at her. Hold her hand, maybe, I don't know."

Mark snorted. "Hand holding isn't exactly subtle, Jack."

"You know what I mean! Just make it obvious you like her without being all like 'Jesus fuckin' Christ I really like you' and then serenading her or something. If it'll work on me, chances are it'll work on everyone."

"Jesus Christ, Jack," Mark giggled. "Okay, fine, I'll try something. Your advice better fucking work."

"Dude, they don't call me 'Love Doctor Jack' for nothin'."

"Okay, Jack," Mark laughed. He glanced the clock, reading 1:27 AM. "I should go, I'll probably have to go shopping in the morning. Are you gonna be free, uh, Tuesday night?"

"Uh, I think so. Why?"

"Wanna go get some pizza from the place on Main Street at, like, six?"

"Hell yeah! See you then!"

"See you, Jack!"

As soon as the Skype call ended, Mark threw his head back against his chair and groaned loudly enough for the entire floor to hear. He didn't care at the moment. Either he just did himself a huge favor, or he just fucked everything up.

~~

_*ping*_

Jack pulled out his phone as he briskly paced down the street.

_Mark: I'm already here. I got a table for us, back left corner._

Jack smiled a little as he tapped out a response.

_Jack: Neat! I'll be there in a few, headed around the corner now._

_Mark: Sweet._

Jack slid his phone back into his hoodie pocket. He glanced at the little shops crammed into the square, gazing fondly through the windows of the local music store, his favorite place to go if he needed to repair his drums or just to have a nice chat. He smiled as he trotted past.

The pizza place was just down the street, a small brick building covered in chipping teal paint and accented with neon lights and a blinking "Open" sign. The sight of it against the cloudy blue evening sky was almost serene, and brought a little peace to Jack's wildly beating heart.

He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. These meetings with Mark were pretty regular, although not so much anymore with finals just around the corner. He wondered if it had something to do with Mark's new lady friend. How come Mark never told him about her, anyway? It seemed odd to him that Mark would wait to bring the subject up; usually he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut. Maybe the stress of finals was getting to him.

As the building grew closer and closer, Jack tried to take deep breaths to steady himself. Was he jealous? Surely not. He didn't even like Mark in that way.

Right?

No. Surely not. He was probably just afraid Mark would stop spending time with him. Lord knew Jack didn't have too many friends to begin with, and he wasn't sure what he would do without Mark by his side.

Before he knew it, Jack was pushing open the door to the pizza place, vaguely hearing the familiar _ding-a-ling_ of the little bell tied to the handle. He searched the seating area for Mark and quickly found him beaming and waving wildly from their designated corner. Jack chuckled and made his way to the table.

"Hey man!" Mark greeted cheerily as he rose from his seat with open arms.

"Hey Mark!" Jack smiled as he quickly hugged Mark and took his place across the booth from him.

"I ordered you a Coke, is that okay?" Mark asked as he slid into his seat.

"Yeah, thanks," Jack replied as the waitress approached their table to deliver their beverages and order their pizza.

Shortly after their order had been placed, Jack awkwardly cleared his throat and asked, "So have you had any luck with yer friend yet?"

"Nope. We haven't talked in a few days. She's been pretty busy," Mark responded without meeting Jack's eyes.

"Ah." After a beat of silence, Jack pressed on. "When will you drop the big bomb on her then?"

Mark snorted a little at his word choice. "Soon."

"Okay." Jack didn't know what else to say, so the subject was dropped. Mark began to avidly describe a YouTube video he had seen recently featuring two men traveling to Area 51 to play Pokemon Go, and Jack soon forgot all about the mystery girl.

Several minutes later, their large pepperoni and sausage pizza arrived, and neither of them hesitated to dig in. They shoveled pizza into their mouth wordlessly, enjoying the hot, greasy meal without need for discussion. Occasionally, their eyes would meet over the large platter in front of them, and they would both quickly avert their eyes in an attempt to pretend that it never happened.  
  
They couldn't hide their blushing, though.

"Oh, man, that hit the spot," Mark commented later, resting a hand on his stomach and leaning back in his seat as if his belly had inflated.

"Hell yeah it did," Jack responded with a barely suppressed burp.

Mark giggled as he wiped his fingers on his napkin and pulled out his phone. "Have you seen Pewdiepie's new video?"

"No, I haven't had the chance to watch his videos in ages."

"Wanna watch this one with me? It looks funny." Mark scooted over in his seat and patted the material next to him, motioning for Jack to sit there.

"Okay." Jack slid out of his seat and into Mark's, and he immediately felt a sense of familiar comfort feeling Mark's body heat radiating next to him. Mark plugged his earbuds into his phone, handed one of them to Jack, and started the video.

It wasn't long before they were both rolling with laughter in their seats. Mark wiped actual tears from his eyes with the hand that wasn't holding his phone, and his fingers accidentally brushed Jack's thigh while casually dropping his hand back to his lap.

That quickly shut Jack up.

A little later, when the featured game was focused more on plot than action, Jack dropped his hands to his lap without thinking, and he shivered a little as he felt his fingers brush Mark's.

Imagine his shock when Mark proceeded to slowly slide his hand into Jack's, intertwining their fingers as Mark continued to watch the video without a word.

The blush creeping up his neck and unfolding across his cheeks gave him away, though.

It was better than Jack, however, who was probably beet red from head to toe at that point. He didn't care too much. In fact, he didn't really care about much of anything if it didn't involve being this close to Mark. It felt so intimate and so foreign at the same time, and yet Jack was perfectly okay with it.

Mark seemed to be okay with it as well, as he could barely conceal his smile when Jack scooted even closer to Mark and nestled his head into Mark's shoulder.

The video soon ended, but Mark quickly switched to another one before Jack had the chance to move. This process repeated until ten, when they were kicked out so that the waiters could close the building for the night.

Neither of them spoke a word on the way home. Strangely, it didn't feel awkward to Jack, whose head was still reeling from earlier. Somewhere in his mind, it registered that there was probably something wrong with this situation, but for the life of him Jack couldn't think of what it was.

As a matter of fact, he wasn't thinking much of anything after Mark wordlessly grabbed his hand again as they made their way back to campus. Jack sidled closer to Mark as they continued their trek.

In the blink of an eye, it seemed, the pair arrived at Jack's dorm. Mark's was just a little further down the sidewalk. Mark let go of Jack's hand and turned around to face him.

"Well," Mark began, "this is your stop." He smiled embarrassedly as he stumbled over his words, and Jack couldn't help but melt a little inside.

"Yeah. Thanks for...taking me out tonight," Jack stammered.

"Not a problem."

They stood there for a moment, refusing to meet each other's eyes, before Mark tentatively stepped forward and opened his arms. Jack did the same.

Even their usual goodbye hug was different. As Jack wrapped his arms around Mark, Mark pulled Jack a little tighter to him and didn't let go for a little while. Jack silently cursed himself for being such a fuckin' mess, seeing as Mark could definitely feel Jack's heart beating erratically against his chest. He breathed in Mark's usual vague scent of cinnamon and pine and somehow found himself internally freaking out even more.  
  
What was happening to him?  
  
Mark loosened his grip on Jack a little bit but didn't let go, and Jack somehow worked up the nerve to properly meet Mark's eyes. He could barely make out their chocolate hue in the soft light emitting from the dorm building, but it wasn't hard to see the intensity burning in Mark's eyes. Jack could feel himself leaning closer to Mark as  
  
_Wait. Shit._  
  
Suddenly, before either of them had the chance to do something they'd regret, Jack broke out of Mark's grasp and turned away, running his hands through his hair.  
  
"Jesus fuck, I'm an idiot, I'm so sorry-"  
  
"What?" Mark asked bemusedly. "Jack, listen-"  
  
"This is so stupid, you have a girl, Mark-"  
  
Jack was cut short as Mark grabbed his wrist and turned him back around. "No, Jack, listen to me. I...I don't have a crush on a girl."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I asked you for advice, hoping you would jokingly mention what you'd prefer your, uh, partner to do for you, because...uh..." Mark closed his eyes and swallowed, working up the nerve for something. "Shit, I really like you and I've wanted to ask you out for a really long time but I didn't know how to tell you and at first I didn't even know if you liked me and then I was just like 'you know what, fuck it' and I tried to pull this off and I'm so sorry," Mark finished breathlessly. "I'm sorry for lying. I just didn't know what else to do and-"  
  
It was Mark's turn to be cut off as Jack laughed relievedly and pulled Mark back in for another hug.  
  
"Jesus Christ, Mark, it's okay. I wasn't sure what you were trying to do until you grabbed my hand in the pizza place. I've, uh, I've kinda been hoping for this to happen too. It's really okay."  
  
"Wait, really?"  
  
"Believe me, if it wasn't okay, I would've stopped you a long time ago."  
  
A beat of silence passed as the words settled in Mark's ears, before he let out a breathless laugh and squeezed Jack so tightly he was probably going to break one of his ribs.  
  
Despite the crushing pain in his chest, Jack couldn't have felt happier.  
  
"So, Jack," Mark began amusedly.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Would you like to have the eternal honor of being the boyfriend of Mark Fischbach, the sexiest man alive?"  
  
Jack laughed. "Of course I would."  
  
"Good."  
  
They stayed in place for what felt like forever, but in reality was only a few precious minutes.  
  
"Want me to walk you up to your room?" Mark murmured in his ear.  
  
Jack smiled. "Okay."  
  
~~  
  
Jack's door was right in front of them, but Mark didn't have any intention of letting Jack go inside until he got something out of the way.  
  
It was only customary, after all.  
  
Jack tried to pull Mark in for one last hug, but instead Mark tilted his head slightly and gently pecked Jack on the lips. It was small and sweet, and he was surprised to find how natural the kiss felt while at the same time making him slightly weak in the knees.  
  
Jack -- _the goober_ , Mark thought to himself -- just kinda stood there in slight shock, as if the kiss had literally electrocuted him.  
  
Mark smiled and ran his fingers through Jack's hair. "Goodnight, Jack," he chuckled before turning away and exiting the hallway without another word.

**Author's Note:**

> ugh I'm not happy with this I feel like Mark and Jack are so out of character in this and ugh
> 
> please reassure me that my writing skills are semi-decent by leaving kudos and maybe a comment if you liked it c:
> 
> \--
> 
> edit: noticed a typo and oH MY GOSH I LEFT SOMETHING OUT HOW DID I MANAGE TO DO THAT I SUCK  
> moar edit: fixing more shit I messed up because I suck and I didn't thoroughly proofread


End file.
